It has some good points. For example. could Sen. Clinton be takingadvantage of the political naivety of new Asian immigrants? That is apoint that 80-20 EF has raised before. Remember our email " Don't BeSuckers" and names like Johnny Chung, Charlie Trie, Maria Hsia, RobertLee and Yogesh Gandhi?

Congressman Mike Honda's retort to that article also has good points."Could our media be too suspicious about political donations from AsianAms?" The media certainly erred in 1997. When John Huang and a fewothers raised money illegally for Pres. Clinton and DNC, the media made itseem like an Asian Am. cabal aimed to undermine our Federal government.Hard to believe!

However, neither has raised the REALLY IMPORTANT POINT:What have we gotten back for our political donations?Among ethnic groups, Asian Ams' political donation is second onlyto Jewish Americans. Shockingly, Asian Ams. don't even enjoy equalopportunity in workplaces yet -- a right enjoyed by all other Americans.For evidence, visit http://www.80-20educationalfoundation.org/wpad.jpg which is a full page ad in Washington Post & carefully documented.

For a brighter future, we must

(1) ask for accountability from our fundraisers (bundlers). Thefundraisers are there when pictures are taken and their personal needstaken care of by the politicians. They need to be there be there to askthe politicians to promise to work for Asian Ams' equal opportunity &in turn hold the politician accountable! If they deliver, we must thankthem for their leadership. Otherwise, such fundraisers are using hardearned money from the little people to buy their personal glory. Weneed to reject them!

(2) also ask for accountability from those Asian Am politicianswho have raised money from us playing up their Asian roots and/orendorsed presidential candidates in our name. If they deliver concretebenefits to our community &/or solid promises from presidentialcandidates to us, thank them & continue to support them. Otherwise,hold them accountable & stop supporting them!

Friday, October 19, 2007

Help the right Asian Am. elected officials (AAEOs), all AsAms maybenefit. Help the wrong ones, all AsAms shall get hurt.

When a wrong AAEO gets support from our community, other AAEOmay imitate him/her. "Bad money drives away good money!"

What is expected of an AAEO? That is what our community needs todiscuss and reach a consensus in order to achieve the kind of politicalcohesion necessary to win our basic rights like equal opportunity at workand to be appointed federal judges. Here is my personal view.

What America Expects Of Its Elected Officials

Elected officials are expected to primarily serve those who live in theirrespective election districts. Hence AsAms living outside of an AAEO'sdistrict should NOT expect help from him/her. The life of any AAEO istough enough. Don't make their lives even tougher. Let them focus ondoing a good job for constituents in their own political district which stillindirectly serves our long term interests.

Two Big Exceptions!

I) Those AAEOs who have raised campaign funds primarily from AsAmsliving within and without their election districts while emphasizing theirAsian ethnic origin, have the obligation to share the concerns of allAsAms.II) Those AAEOs who endorsed presidential candidates by becomingmembers of "Asian Ams for XXX" therefore playing up their ethnicconnection have the obligation to persuade the endorsed presidentialcandidate to promote the rightful aspirations of AsAms.

Asian Americas Deserve these Basic Rights

AsAms deserve

1) to enjoy equal opportunity in workplaces by the enforcement of Exec.Order 11246 that is enforced for all Ams. except us, and2) to have many more AsAm Federal judges -- currently only 0.6 % whilethe % of our population and lawyers is about 4.5%.